A feature-length vehicle for advocacy: ART AND PEP
ART AND PEP is an award-winning feature documentary that tells the inspiring 50-year love story of LGBTQ+ civil rights leaders Art Johnston and José Pepe Peña, owners of the iconic Sidetrack bar in Chicago. From Director Mercedes Kane, the film tells the inspiring story of the long struggle for equality and Johnston and Peña’s fight to allow everyone to love freely and has been lauded by critics and film festivals internationally. When Peacock picked up the film for streaming in June 2023, HCo jumped at the opportunity to help bring this epic love story from the big screen to every screen nationwide.
Having already supported the doc with a full range of creative services, HausCo launched an integrated marketing campaign and supported the Peacock launch with a paid social media campaign that, in just three weeks, reached over 530,000 people and delivered over 770,000 impressions. Optimizing toward clicks and engagements also allowed the campaign to produce over 82,000 link clicks to the ART AND PEP documentary website.
Understanding the value of truly knowing your audience.
HausCo set out to reach people who would directly resonate with a queer love story. Due to Meta’s limitations on targeting based on sexual orientation (and other protected attributes), HCo had to combine our cultural awareness and digital knowledge to reach the right audience. This meant including keywords that resonate with our target audiences, such as art, film, social change, activism, and even Queer Eye. The campaign's success was also largely driven by using a Lookalike audience, which targeted users displaying characteristics similar to those engaging with the ART AND PEP Facebook page and Instagram account in cities with high LGBTQ+ populations.
Creating an integrated and holistic approach
Our strategy was primarily audience and needs-centric. It started with a website to engage early supporters and donors with the documentary before we even had a full trailer. ArtAndPep.org got folks excited about embarking on a journey with us by providing the early funding needed to get off the ground and partnership to keep production moving. We kept our partners and donors excited and onboard via social support and flexed our Paid Media muscles to support critical moments up until the Peacock launch.
HausCo stepped in for every stage of the ART and PEP documentary; from a good website to work from to reaching folks in their inboxes and finding the right people on social media, this work is a testament to hitting all bases and dotting all i’s.